At roughly 2 p.m. Tuesday, I got another message from aforementioned friend, saying that it had been confirmed and would soon be made public that OSU would get a 1-year bowl ban to be enforced in the 2012 season. Among the other penalties (in case you live under a rock or anywhere outside of Columbus, Ohio), a 3-year probation, loss of 9 scholarships over a 3-year period, and a 5-year show-cause penalty for former head coach Jim Tressel.
So I have sat back and listened (because occasionally I do listen and not talk) to all the backlash. Some people want to blame the NCAA, saying the penalties are too harsh or unfair. Some people blame Gene Smith, OSU's athletic director. Some people blame the players involved in the original incident, others blame the players involved in the second incident, and some people blame Jim Tressel.
I am not sure you can single out any one person for the sanctions, but I do know you can't blame the NCAA. The punishment may not seem fair, but it was definitely appropriate. Look, I am as big a homer as they come. I love my Buckeyes. But some of the players broke the rules. It may be a DUMB rule, but a rule is a rule and they chose to violate it. Jim Tressel chose not to report it in the manner fitting with the rules. To top it off, after the rule was broken, two of the players who chose to break the first rule decided they were going to go ahead and break ANOTHER rule.
So a 1-year bowl ban is an appropriate punishment.
Now, I will say that I wish the NCAA had acted in swifter fashion so that the ban could be enforced this season rather than next. It isn't just that this season has been lackluster as a whole and that the Gator bowl isn't as high-profile as we are used to attending. It is that the "unfair" term can be applied to the fact that the bowl ban will not affect the players who chose to break those rules. The two in question (DeVier Posey and Boom Herron) are gone after this season. So essentially you are punishing the school only, and the ones who suffer most are next season's seniors, should they choose to stay for their last season.
Next on the blame list is Gene Smith. Where do I start with Gene Smith? When he initially held the press conference in March, I liked the guy. He stood behind Tressel, he was no-nonsense, and he seemed confident that OSU would straighten out the mess in quick fashion with little repercussions. But soon that confidence morphed into some sort of arrogance, and as more and more information leaked out, I really started to dislike Gene Smith. When Tressel was let go, I think that was the clincher for me. (I will address Tressel's departure in another post, but let me just say for the record that he deserved to be fired for his actions.) Gene Smith has handled this situation in all the wrong ways, even from the first press conference where he impressed me.
Let me elaborate:
When you were a kid and your class got in trouble with your teacher, did you (a) say I am sorry and will be happy to serve out any punishment my teacher deems appropriate, or (b) claim no one in the class really did anything wrong, then claim that it was only one person in your class who did the wrongdoing and no one else knew about it, then kick that kid out of the class, then impose your own punishment and claim that it was the appropriate punishment and that your teacher shouldn't give you any additional punishment based on past punishments that have been given? Which do you think would make your teacher satisfied?
Perhaps that is overly simplistic, but the level of arrogance Gene Smith has shown as this situation has progressed has irritated me, so I can't imagine how those at the National Collegiate Athletic Association feel about it. He had the chance to impose a 1-year bowl ban to try to appease the NCAA, and he kept insisting that the measures they had self-imposed were appropriate given the precedents they had researched. Yet all along, we have heard how the NCAA is really going to start to crack down more on these violations, so how would precedent play into a punishment when they are trying to be MORE strict than they have in the past? I feel like Gene Smith slapped the NCAA in the face, so they slapped him right back. Maybe they would have imposed a 1-year bowl ban in addition to this year's self-imposed ban. I don't think so, but I know a lot of people think they just wanted to make a point. But had Smith handled the situation differently, maybe they wouldn't have felt the need to "make a point."
Moving on the players themselves, I find myself conflicted. I want to blame the Tattoo 5. I want to blame DeVier Posey and Boom Herron (especially since they had the gall to commit a SECOND violation after already being punished for the FIRST!). But ultimately, they served their suspensions and "did their time," so it is hard to say they deserve more blame. But now, as the punishment falls to the next senior class, and the entire team is put on probation for three seasons, how can you not place some more blame on them for their part? I find myself repeating what many have said over the past 2 days -- it isn't FAIR.
And for those of you who want to blame Terrelle Pryor, be thankful he left when he did. Had he chosen to stay, he would have been forced to testify, and I have a feeling we wouldn't have liked what he had to say.
And how will these sanctions impact our team? Let's start with the post-season ban. We cannot participate in next season's Big 10 Championship game. Think about that for a second. I don't know about you, but even after we lost that game to MSU and I figured we probably wouldn't make it to the B10 Championship, I still held out hope until the very last minute. That was the inaugural Big 10 Championship, and Ohio State has at least shared a piece of the Big 10 Title for almost the last decade. And we didn't get to represent our division, despite the fact that we beat Wisconsin. And now, in our first year under our new head coach, with all the hope and promise he brings, we still don't get to play in that game.
Now think about it if you are Jon Simon or Nathan Williams. You are a junior. You are teetering between going into the NFL or returning for one more season of glory. One more chance at a title. Now, the best you can do is play spoiler to all the other teams in your conference and maybe get the best of TTUN one more time. You won't be playing into December or January. Is it worth the risk to come back?
Outside of the post-season ban, which has the most tangible impact, we are now on probation for 3 years and have 3 fewer scholarships to hand out each year for the next 3 years. Do not, for a minute, think that a post-season ban is the most serious punishment handed down to OSU. I don't know if you have heard (and if you read my blog regularly, you have), but Urban Meyer is out there recruiting coaches and players like crazy right now. He just confirmed Mike Vrabel's return. Future players love him. But being on probation for 3 years is no joke. With the NCAA cracking down on repeat offenders, if OSU even steps out of line by a hair, the NCAA might cut them off entirely. Would you want to risk being on a team where your future is determined by the actions of others? And what happens when we run out of scholarships to offer these amazing athletes? Do we cut existing players in the hope that the prospect coming in will be better (as is popular in the SEC, by the way)? Is that how we want OSU to function?
I don't think Urban Meyer is going anywhere. He is committed to The Ohio State University. These sanctions will impact him in recruiting for sure, and it might change the game (no pun intended) for some of the existing players as well.
Now we get to sit back and see if the NCAA is really going to hold true to its mission and crack down on some of the other schools with outstanding violations, such as Miami (FL), Oregon, North Carolina...
Because if these are the sanctions we got for what we did, Miami is in BIG trouble.
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